


All That It Takes Is A Little Reinvention

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Charlie has Jared Kleinman energy, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Inspired by Dear Evan Hansen, Inspired by To All The Boys I've Loved Before, M/M, May include Avalance and Darhkatom, That's up to you guys, i said what i said, no one dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23193736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: John Constantine and Gary Green are barely friends. They never really spoke until Gary was assigned to be John's tutor. John's desperation to keep it a secret leads to a hasty excuse given to his friends that has...consequences. Now, they all think he's dating Gary. So with a little persuasion, he and Gary strike a deal to pretend to date.How bad could it be?(The High School fake dating AU for Constangreen that no one asked for and you're getting anyways)
Relationships: Charlie & John Constantine, John Constantine & Gary Green, John Constantine/Gary Green
Comments: 11
Kudos: 50





	All That It Takes Is A Little Reinvention

**Author's Note:**

  * For [supernatural_mondler (starzinoureyes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starzinoureyes/gifts).



> So this is mostly the fault of my best friend getting me into Dear Evan Hansen, but I have no regrets writing this because there can never be too much Constangreen in my opinion. And of course, I have to thank the Constangreen server for being their amazing selves and boosting me when I feel low.
> 
> I wrote this about a month ago because of the buzz for the next TATBILB movie and having crumbs of Constangreen and just being in the DEH rabbit hole. And somehow...this all came together. It's taken me a while to post this but I hope it's worth it.
> 
> Shout out to Nor (hanorganaas) for betaing this and making sure I wasn't making a grand old mess of it. Go read her Legendary Heroine verse

John Constantine was late again.

He was supposed to be arriving at 5:30 sharp, but it was now 5:40 and there was no sign of him. Gary Green sighed and once again straightened out the study materials. Twice a week, John showed up at his house to get tutored in history by Gary. Since they’d started over two weeks ago (almost a week after Gary had broken his arm), his pupil had often showed up late by a few minutes from the set time with a quip and a class notebook that had weird Latin scribbles on it.

John wasn’t exactly the ideal student, but Gary was determined to prove that he could tutor someone. His counselor suggested being a tutor as a potential way to build confidence in himself and his abilities, especially after the fall. So Gary had signed up for the tutoring program and was assigned to work with John Constantine. Getting that assignment had been terrifying for two reasons: one, some of John’s friends tended to bully him and two, Gary had a massive crush on John. However, it worked out because John wasn’t telling anyone he was getting tutoring and they studied at Gary’s house instead of the library. It made things harder, but Gary kept in his mind that academics had to come first, dating second.

When the doorbell rang at 5:42, Gary skidded across the floor in his socks to open the front door for John.

“Sorry I’m late,” John apologized, stepping into the house and remembering to wipe his boots off on the mat. “Had a bit of a problem.”

“Yeah, that’s okay. It’d be nice if you showed up on time for once.”

“In all fairness, I was going to be on time, except Sara and Ava and Nate found out I was coming here.”

Gary squeaked. “What do they know? Did you tell them? What did they say about it? Do they-”

“Shush Gary,” John interrupted as they headed towards the dining room where they usually studied. “Calm down. I’m not telling them I’m flunking history. I had to give them an excuse as to why I was showing up at your house.”

“What did you tell them?”

“Oh, I just said that we’re dating.”

Okay, he did  _ not _ hear that right. There was no way he heard that right.

“D-d-d-did you say dating?” he finally stuttered out, “Like  _ romantically  _ dating?”

“Yeah, it was the first thing that came to mind. I tried to get out of it, but they were persistent. Everyone couldn’t figure out why I was going to your place and then Nate asked if we were dating so I said yes.”

“Did they believe it?”

John nodded. Gary sank down into one of the chairs at the table. 

“So now what?”

“Knowing that lot, they’ll be asking me questions tomorrow,” said John, taking a seat next to him. “They’re going to want to talk to you too. I don’t have a backup story.”

“Crap,” Gary muttered, “I take it you also don’t want to tell them that you need tutoring?”

“Got that right, squire.”

“How did they believe that? We never hang out around school!”

“Which is why I come over to your house after school,” John grinned. “I said we were secretly dating. See, talked my way out of that. Although Zari did ask if we were texting each other.”

“You don’t even have a phone,” Gary reminded him, picking at the edge of his cast. “Which I only know because when I asked for your number to set up study dates, you told me that!”

“It’s true,” John muttered, leaning back in his seat. “Gary, I’m about to ask you a big favor.”

“I’m already tutoring you.”

“I know, but  _ another _ big favor. I need you to fake date me.”

Hearing the words ‘date me’ would have made Gary jump over the moon, but the word ‘fake’ added into the phrase killed that feeling. “I don’t know about this, John.”

“Come on, squire,” John pleaded. “This can work out for both of us. I don’t have to tell my friends I’m being tutored because I’m flunking class. In turn, you can hang with me and I’ll keep the bullies off your back.”

No bullies. He could get through a day of school without having to deal with people mocking him, tripping him, or calling him by some stupid nickname. John was one of the cool outcasts. Maybe, he could even keep his own friends from bullying him. What a dream.

“How long would this arrangement last?” Gary asked.

“Until finals,” John decided after thinking for a moment. “We’re tutoring up until then, right?”

That was about six weeks away. He could do six weeks of this. “Okay, I’m in.”

A relieved smile spread over John’s face. “Thanks, Gary.”

“Right, now that we have that out of the way, we’d better get to today’s session,” Gary opened the history textbook. “I’m pretty sure my dad’s going to invite you to stay for dinner again, so we can work out anything else that comes with this arrangement.”

“Fair enough,” John opened his notebook, revealing even more Latin on the pages.

* * *

Sure enough, John’s friends had been on Gary the next day when he came to school. Luckily, John was there to buffer some of the conversation. They’d managed to figure out a decent enough backstory. After working together on a science project, John and Gary had each other’s emails and corresponded that way. When Ray asked if he could see said emails, Garytried to deflect until Zari said she could definitely hack into their accounts and pull them up. John stepped in when he saw Gary getting nervous and told her they’d show them the emails later. Emails that did not exist.

That was why he and Gary were now hiding in the religion section of the library with their computers and Charlie Jiwe. John had thought he’d fooled everyone until Charlie caught up with him in the middle of passing period to tell him otherwise. They were the only person who did not buy John’s story about getting together with Gary. Luckily, John knew exactly how to ensure Charlie’s silence. It would cost him the money he was saving for concert tickets, but at least it would still go toward concert tickets given Charlie’s interests were the same as John’s.

Striking the deal with Charlie had an added bonus too. They knew a site that could generate fake emails that looked real. Plus without further charge, they were willing to help keep up the charade and not spoil it to the others. 

After a few minutes of typing, Charlie spun Gary’s laptop around to face the two of them. “Who wants to start?”

“I will,” John volunteered, pulling the laptop towards himself. “It was my idea.”

He started to type, dictating softly:

_ “Dear Gary Green. It’s been a while since we had that science project and I wanted to catch up with you. It’s too bad we don’t talk that much. There’s a lot I could talk to you about. I should tell you that I think of you each night, and I rub-“ _

“No!” Gary gasped too loud and batted John’s hands away. “No, no, no, why would you write that?!”

“It seems pretty believable so far,” Charlie snickered.

“Your friends are going to read those emails!” Gary protested, throwing his arms in the air, accidently hitting his cast against one of the shelves. “What if they bring it up? They’ll tease me!”

“I told you, I wouldn’t let that happen," John reminded him. He was kidding around, but maybe now was not the time. “I’ll fix it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” John nodded, deleting the last line he wrote from the letter. “I got a B in English.”

“A B?!” Gary yelped, his eyes widening behind his glasses. His breath began to quicken. “A B?! We’re doomed!”

“Shhh!” Charlie growled as they clapped their hand over his mouth. “Be more chill, will ya? Unless you want the whole school to hear you!”

“Back up off him,” John pushed Charlie’s hand off and turned to Gary. “So I’m not a straight A student, but I can bullshit through anything pretty well. And that’s what we need right now.”

Gary nodded, his breath returning to a normal pace . “As long as it’s believable that we’re dating.”

“It will be,” John said as he turned back to the laptop. “ _ Since the project, life has been… _ ”

“Hard?” Gary offered, making Charlie snort. “Uhhh, rough?”

Charlie snickered. “Rough, huh?”

“Tough,” John typed in.

He went on for a few more lines about how he didn’t realize how much fun it was to work with Gary and that maybe they should hang out together after school. Gary leaned his head a bit to read over John’s shoulder while Charlie began paging through a book on Egyptian mythology. Finally, he ended the letter. Even though Gary offered to proofread it, John told him it’d sound more original without the corrections. Besides, it was Gary’s turn to write the response to that email.

“Are you gonna be okay typing with that thing on?” John questioned, gesturing to Gary’s cast.

Gary nodded. “I'll be fine. Okay, here I go.”

He started on his letter, murmuring to himself from time to time about what to put in. Gary’s response was better well-structured than John’s. He replied to everything that John mentioned, and brought up new things that they could build up upon. There were a few things that had to be struck (“Wait until the next email to bring up D&D.”) but the email overall looked really good. He knew just what to say to nudge things along for John’s follow up email.

* * *

“Not bad, not bad at all,” Charlie remarked as they looked over the emails. “So, are we done here?”

“Seems pretty good unless they ask for more,” John answered with a shrug. “I don’t mind writing a few more if we have to.”

“It would be good insurance,” Gary added. He never expected to have so much fun on the emails. It was a little like writing fanfiction, except real people were involved and not Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian.

“You’ve got three already,” Charlie snorted. “They’re not going to pressure you  _ that  _ much. Chill, Gary.”

Gary nodded before peeking at his watch. “Although we might have to do it later. The bell is going to go off in a few minutes and I want to get to class early.”

“Showing up with everyone else will do no harm,” John told him. “Charlie, thanks for keeping this quiet.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Gary smiled at them. “You did a lot for us.”

“Yeah, but there’s only one more thing that needs to happen,” Charlie said as they put the book on polytheistic cultures in early Europe. “Your cast.”

“It comes off in a few weeks, but I can still hold his hand if we need to do that,” Gary blurted out.

John chuckled while Charlie smirked. “You two should  _ definitely  _ do that. But also, John needs to sign it.”

“Sign it?” John questioned with a frown. “How come?”

“Because you’re supposed to be his boyfriend, dummy! It’s ridiculous that you didn’t sign it sooner.”

“He doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to,” Gary spoke up, cradling the cast to his chest. The nearly blank cast that no one, except for his dad and little brother, had offered to sign. Two signatures were on different ends of the cast. Other than that, it was a blank canvas his brother always asked if he could paint.

John went digging in his bag, pulling out some crystals, a leather pouch, and a short black box before producing a black Sharpie.

“Do you mind?” he offered, uncapping the marker.

Gary looked between the marker and his cast before agreeing. John muttered something about wishing he’d learned more healing symbols to put on the cast when he wrote his name in big letters across the front. Charlie gave a nod of approval and asked to sign it too. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt, Gary held out his arm to them, getting Charlie’s name with the words ‘Rock on!’ written beneath.

“Let me know if you guys need help again,” Charlie said as they swung their bag up and headed off towards the exit.

“Thanks again,” John waved, before turning to Gary. “You’re a good writer.”

“Yeah,” Gary said, as he felt himself blush. “Sorry about freaking out earlier. It’s a lot happening all of a sudden socially and I guess I got a little anxious.”

“It happens. You’re a good guy, you know, for agreeing to this.”

“We both get what we need out of it, even if we have to pretend,” Gary muttered, busying himself as he put his laptop away. He’d prefer not having to pretend, but it made no sense for John to like him like that. But he could pretend. He pretended a lot anyways.

John was about to walk away but stopped. “Hey, Gary?”

“Yeah?”

“We have chemistry class together. Up to walking there with me?”

Gary stared up at him. “What?”

“You and me walking to chemistry,” John snarked as he held out a hand. “We’re both headed there anyways. You don’t have time to be there early anymore.”

Gary winced as the bell rang. “Dammit.”

“Being on time instead of early won’t hurt,” John added with a grin “Come on. We can talk more.”

Gary’s dad was always telling him to be more sociable, especially after he started seeing a counselor. Plus, he and John were “dating” now, so appearances had to be kept.

“Alright,” Gary agreed, taking John’s hand with his good one and pulling himself up. “But we better get going so we aren’t late.”

“The class is right up the stairs.”

“Which are always crazy crowded! There’s always someone who’s coming down or going up the wrong way and it makes such a mess!”

“If you’d only broken your leg,” John lamented as they left the shelves. “You could have gotten an elevator pass.”

Gary laughed uneasily, looking down at his arm. “Too bad.”

“Hey, how did you break your arm?”

The sounds of everyone in the hallway buzzed in his ears after Gary heard the question. It had been a few weeks since the fall out of the tree. The doctors, his dad, his brother, the counselor, and even a few of his teachers had all asked what had happened to him. Every time, it took him back to that moment in that tree and he had to remember how to breathe.

“Gary?” John’s voice sounded concerned, breaking Gary out of his thoughts. “Did you hear me?”

The buzzing drone returned to the chatter of students moving to their next class. “Yeah?”

“I was asking how you broke your arm?”

“Oh, I…uh, fell out of a tree.”

“Huh,” John nodded. “That’s something.”

“Sure is,” Gary answered, relieved John had believed his lie.

They made it to chemistry with a minute to spare. While they didn’t hold hands, they had been walking close enough for people to whisper about how John Constantine was now dating Gary Green.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo maybe leave a kudos? A review? If it's popular enough, I might add more based on other songs from DEH and throw in some other ships.


End file.
